N.J. Supreme Court: Lyrics off limits at trials

This undated photo provided by the New Jersey Department of Corrections shows Vonte Skinner.

Thwarted by a mistrial in their first attempt, prosecutors looking to convict a man in the case of a violent drug deal used his own rap lyrics against him, reading page after page of explicit, first-person images of shootings and murder to the jury.

The jury convicted him of attempted murder and a judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

But on Monday, the state Supreme Court said no, that a person’s imagination can’t be part of his real-world criminal trial. It affirms an earlier appeals court decision that overturned Skinner’s conviction.

“One would not presume that Bob Marley, who wrote the well-known song ‘I Shot the Sheriff,’ actually shot a sheriff, or that Edgar Allan Poe buried a man beneath his floorboards, as depicted in his short story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’ simply because of their respective artistic endeavors on those subjects,” the court wrote in its unanimous opinion.

The court said Skinner should get a new trial. The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said they will try once again to make the charges stick that he shot Lamont Peterson seven times – including twice in the head, paralyzing him.

To help convict Skinner and establish a motive in his 2008 trial, a detective read 13 pages of Skinner’s writing to the jury. Those lyrics glorified gang violence, shooting people and sexual assault.

The jury heard lyrics like, “I hit him with the Smithen; hauled off 15 rounds, seven missed him.” And, “When I pump this P-89 into your head like lice. Slugs will pass ya’ D, like Montana and Rice.”

The Supreme Court said that such lyrics could convince a jury that Skinner had acted violently even when there was no evidence to suggest that the songs were about anything other than fictional events.

“The admission of defendant’s inflammatory rap verses, a genre that certain members of society view as art and others view as distasteful and descriptive of a mean-spirited culture, risked poisoning the jury against defendant,” Justice Jaynee LaVecchia wrote in her opinion for the court.

While writing lyrics about violent acts isn’t a bad act in itself, some members of the jury might believe it is and convict based on the idea that Skinner was a bad person who for that general reason alone, should be convicted, the court said.

“Not all members of society recognize the artistic or expressive value in graphic writing about violence and a culture of hate and revenge,” the opinion said.

With the court ruling in his favor, Skinner is now being held on bail awaiting his third trial.

While Skinner said he was at the scene of the 2005 shooting in Willingboro, he said that he ran away when he heard gunfire and claimed someone else pulled the trigger. Peterson identified Skinner on his way to the hospital as the shooter, according to court records.

The American Civil Liberties Union praised the court arguing that should such lyrics be used to convict Skinner, it would clamp down on freedom of speech rights.

“From cave paintings to Johnny Cash to ‘Game of Thrones,’ the history of art reflects all elements of society, including violent ones,” said Ezra Rosenberg of Dechert LLP, cooperating attorney for the ACLU-NJ, in a statement Monday.

During oral arguments before the state Supreme Court in April, Jennifer Paszkiewicz, an assistant county prosecutor in Burlington County, said the lyrics spoke to Skinner’s motive.

“He certainly seemed satisfied to glamorize that lifestyle in his writing,” Paszkiewicz told the court at the time. “He referenced his role as an enforcer. … That is exactly what happened in this case.”

Only once before in state history have song lyrics been allowed at trial, the court’s opinion said. That instance involved a 2001 case where a man was alleged to have gunned down two pizza delivery­men with no apparent motive. Unlike Skinner’s case, where whole pages were read to the jury, in 2001 only a few lines of lyrics found in the defendant’s bedroom were used to show “an obsession with killing people.”

Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said in a statement “We appreciate the court’s direction going forward on the use of such lyrics.”

“This decision provides guidance to all New Jersey prosecutors who contemplate the use of such evidence in the future. We stand ready to retry Mr. Skinner on his outstanding attempted murder charge.”